"Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold

John Jarrold said:
You may have noticed that some of our UK members have a somewhat - how can I put this? - darkly humorous, even gallows humor, approach to this. I blame the smogs in the 1950s, personally. Some of which I remember, sadly...
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As this point I can only quote;:D

Baldrick: Well, Mr Blackadder always says, when the going gets tough, the tough hide under the table.

Ep; Sense and Senility - Blackadder the Third.



 
Blackadder: It's all part of my subtle plan.
Baldric: I don't see any subtle plan.
Blackadder: Baldric, you wouldn't see a subtle plan if it dressed itself up in purple and danced upon a harpischord singing 'Subtle Plans Are Here Again'.

By the way, I know this has absolutely nothing to do with this forum, but moments of randomness are good for the soul. Or something.
 
Exactly. All work and no play...

But now we can get back to the serious business of publishing!
 
Hi John

I saw this article and would be interested in your thoughts

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070517/ap_en_ot/books_in_print_forever_1

As I read it, a publishers hold the rights to a book for as long as it is in print, and publishers may begin defining still being in print as being available as Print On Demand - meaning they can retain the rights to a book and effectively never publish any copies.
 
I'll try...

John, can you make any distinction in the difference between dark urban fantasy and paranormal thriller? I'm thinking that in general terms one is fantasy and one is thriller.

Can they cross over? My agent and I agreed that I should try a paranormal thriller with a heavy romance element. This was to increase our chances in the market place, as far as extra reads and opportunities. My last book that was picked up was an urban fantasy, kinda dark. But the fantasy is really not that much different than the recent paranormal thriller.

Could the thriller also be sent to the fantasy markets? I guess a little genre switch on the query/synopsis could do the trick, eh?

Tri
 
Yes, it's an extremely thin line. Laurell Hamilton really kick-startd this supernatural thriller area, and Orbit in the UK, for instance, now publsh a number of authors in that area, ranging from Hamilton to Jim Butcher, Tanya Huff, Barb & JC Hendee and a number of others. Some are nearer the romantic end of the spectrum, others more tough thrillers. To some degree it will depend on the specific publisher and editor to whom your work is being submitted. One senior editor in London told me her company wanted to see the romantic supernatural stuff, but not the more - as they saw it - male-oriented supernatural thrillers...
 
Hi John.

On a related topic…

How wide does the Urban Fantasy/Supernatural Thriller umbrella stretch?

Reason being, I’m trying to classify my own work for an initial query to an agent and I don’t want the agent to think I’m trying to con them with a misleading genre tag.
I think of my novel as an Urban Fantasy, because it the characters and stories have “fantastical” elements to them, based in a modern day environment. But from the books I’ve seen and read, UF is usually based largely around the occult and magic, vampires, werewolves, witches, gods and so on. All funky groovy but my book doesn’t contain any of that. Are these things required for an UF/ST genre tag?

Problem is, there’s no way I can class my book as a standard action adventure or a thriller. Not unless immortals and ancient creatures from before the dawn of time start popping up in Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn novels...

Does it just come down to crossing fingers and hoping that the agent is forgiving/open minded about conventions of genre?
 
I think from what you say you can certainly call it urban fantasy, but make the points you state here in your covering letter, then you can't be accused of trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes!!!

I still think of Charles de Lint and Emma Bull as writing urban fantasy, rather than 'supernatural thrillers'...
 
John, agreed on that. Actually, paranormal romance is a really hot ticket right now. I have a very heavy romance element in mine, plus I gave it an "empowered" female lead. But I still want to call it a thriller because of the structure. I guess I'm just homesick, having to be classified in a different genre. I'm the tried and true SF and Fantasy author--at least I thought so.

Yanno, I always thought that urban fantasy was like Bedazzed, Manikin, Date with an Angel, Wierd Science, Splash, Click, The Girl the Gold Watch and Everything, Bewitched, Stepford Wives, and others of that ilk. I guess that stuff is a little too light for what the market wants nowadays, eh? I love humor and irony, with implied sex. Boy, have I changed. As Arnold would say, "Now you are writing gurly books, gurly man." Heh, but it's fun, stretching my talent and getting inside the heads of female leads. Certainly a departure for me.

It's true that the marketing plan lies with the publisher. Heck, if it's too far off the genre mark, I guess it can tailored to suit with rewrites.

Tri
 
Yeah, over here Gollancz are starting a new imprint: Gollancz Romancz...good grief. Vamps and sex...
 
John Jarrold said:
I think from what you say you can certainly call it urban fantasy, but make the points you state here in your covering letter, then you can't be accused of trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes!!!
Click to expand...

Cool. Thanks for your help John. :)
 
John Jarrold said:
Yes, it's an extremely thin line. Laurell Hamilton really kick-startd this supernatural thriller area, and Orbit in the UK, for instance, now publsh a number of authors in that area, ranging from Hamilton to Jim Butcher, Tanya Huff, Barb & JC Hendee and a number of others. Some are nearer the romantic end of the spectrum, others more tough thrillers. To some degree it will depend on the specific publisher and editor to whom your work is being submitted. One senior editor in London told me her company wanted to see the romantic supernatural stuff, but not the more - as they saw it - male-oriented supernatural thrillers...
Click to expand...


Interesting. I have almost finished a book in this genre. It needs to be edited and re-written in a couple of places. But I would be interested in submitting it to any agents/editors that may be on the look-out for that type of work.
 
Thanks John. I would love to submit some of it to yourself. But I'd be terrified that you'd hate it because it still needs some over-hauling lol

I have emailed you the general outline of it. Let me know what you think.
 
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Will do, but please send the first six chapters too. Publishers and agents need to love the writing, the characters, the dialogue, the ideas and the plotlines before taking a new author forward!

JJ
 
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